All These Things That I've Done
by allthefeelsallofthem
Summary: From a prompt on tumblr: "jaime wakes up after his mode has been crashed and the first person he sees is bart all beaten up."


AN: From a prompt on tumblr: "jaime wakes up after his mode has been crashed and the first person he sees is bart all beaten up."

...why are so many of my titles from songs (answer: lack of creativity and a habit of listening to music while I write)

Jaime watched in horror and confusion as Superboy charged him, face contorted in anger. Why would his teammate do that? Just as he was about to be struck Jaime's arm raised and fired, throwing Superboy back into Wondergirl. He quickly scanned the area for enemies, and saw only other members of his team. What was going on?

Then his arm pointed at Batgirl, shooting a staple at her and pinning her to the wall, and he realized that _he_ hadn't moved it or given the mental command to fire. He wasn't in control of his body. He tried moving his fingers, his eyes, his mouth, but had no success. He had been reduced to a spectator of his own life.

Suddenly something blurred in front of him and he felt a series of rapid impacts on his upper body, hitting all the weak points in his armour. _Great_. Even though he couldn't use his body he could still feel its pain. That hardly registered though. What was infinitely more important was the identity of the person hitting him –and there was only one person it could be. A few weeks ago he had (completely against the scarab's orders) shown Bart the most likely way to take him down in case this ever happened.

Bart wasn't doing enough damage though, and whatever was controlling his body began processing at top speed, allowing it to see exactly what the speedster was doing. Jaime mentally screamed at himself not to hurt him, but he was either unheard or ignored. He heard a chuckle –so similar to Black Beetle's– leave his own lips as he mercilessly hit Bart. Bart staggered, but kept at it, and Jaime was forced to watch as his body continued to beat his best friend. A few seconds later and Bart's nose was broken, a massive scorch mark on his chest as he fell to the ground unconscious.

Jaime's body turned, looking for its next victim, while internally Jaime himself pounded on the mental walls that confined him. Just as he was about to take out Robin he felt one of the walls tear. Suddenly the blast that had been about to fire from his arm died, and unbelievingly, when Jaime ordered his armour to retract it did. For a few seconds his head was exposed, but before he was able to say or do anything else he felt a violent mental shove and everything went black.

He stayed like that for a while, floating in space. However, he gradually became aware of a quiet beeping noise. What was going on? This was even worse than before, when he had at least been able to see. Panicking, he clenched his fists, ready to fight. Hold on. He was able to clench his fists? Hesitantly he uncurled his hands. He had control!

The movement seemed to have been noticed by someone though, as there was a sharp intake of breath and then…

"Blue? Jaime? You awake?"

So it had been a dream? He opened his eyes, wincing from the sudden light. Gradually his surroundings came into focus. A white room with various monitors and equipment grouped around the bed he was in, and next to the bed was Bart. Jaime felt his heart rate double, accompanied by the beeping suddenly becoming much faster.

"B….Ba…Bart…" his voice was rough, and he was glad when a glass of water was held to his lips. After eagerly drinking a few sips he felt some of his energy return and sat up. Immediately he wished he hadn't. Not because of his head spinning, he could handle that. But because he was able to get a good look at the boy sitting beside him.

Bart looked like he'd been hit by a truck. One of his arms was in a splint, and the skin up one side of his neck and face was purpled with bruises. Jaime looked closer and almost recoiled in horror as he saw the bandage on his nose, accompanied by matching black eyes, almost healed but still noticeable. It hadn't been a dream. Which meant…

"I did all that to you." It wasn't a question. Already more memories were beginning to surface of what he had done while on mode, and all of the times the team had tried to take him down.

Bart's good hand grabbed Jaime's. "No you didn't. The Reach controlled your body. It wasn't you."

Jaime shook his head, trying to block everything out. "I…I watched myself hurt everyone. Hurt you."

"We'll all be fine. The important thing is that you came back."

Jaime frowned. "How? I can't remember much…"

"We're not really sure. But after being on mode for a few weeks you started to regain control. At first it was just for a few seconds at a time," Jaime's eyes widened, remembering the end of his dream, "but it started happening for longer and longer. You yelled at us to run, you turned on the other beetles…but eventually you always went away. Two nights ago was different though. The second you came to you…you…" Bart looked down, voice shaking. "You shot yourself and passed out. I thought you were dead…." His voice broke as tears began to fall. Jaime reacted almost instinctively, letting go of Bart's hand so that he could pull him close. Bart hugged him back with his good arm, burying his face in Jaime's shoulder.

As he stroked the other boy's hair, a few tears running down his own face, Jaime began to remember.

"I wasn't trying to kill myself." Bart looked up, confusion evident on his face.

"Then what? You knew how to fix yourself?"

"Well…_I_ didn't. But the scarab did. It wasn't what was controlling me. The Reach had put a virus in it, which was what was in charge…but when I regained control it was able to communicate with me. The second last time it told me what I had to do in order to destroy the virus, and, well…here I am. It saved us all from Blue Beetle."

Bart's expression became more serious. "It may have known what to do, but you were the one who overpowered the Reach's control. You saved yourself."

Jaime gave a weak laugh. "I guess you could say it was a team effort."

"How _did _you manage to regain control?"

Jaime moved one of his hands from Bart's hair to his uninjured cheek. "I couldn't allow myself to betray everyone. So I fought against the virus in my mind until it gave way…but I still did so much damage." He closed his eyes, wincing as the memories continued to return.

"Hey. Don't blame yourself." Bart's voice was almost a whisper. "You came back, and that's all that matters." He leaned in, voice becoming even softer. "You're here…"

Jaime closed the final distance between them, gently bringing their lips together. He felt Bart smile into the kiss before beginning to return it. Jaime could have continued like that for quite some time, but then he felt Bart wince and quickly pulled back.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm just a bit sore." Jaime raised an eyebrow and Bart sighed. "Fine, a lot sore. But nothing's wrong now that you're back."

Jaime kissed the other boy's forehead. "And I'm here to stay."

He knew he could never completely undo the damage he had done while on mode, but as he held Bart he realized this was a promising start.

AN: My fics are essentially Disney movies. No matter what I initially plan they all seem to end with a kiss.

Also I kind of like the scarab and prefer to think that the Reach is controlling Jaime, not Khaji Da.


End file.
